110729: Looking at children or pictures of children with desire

Is looking at nude pictures of children (minor males) haram?
Is looking at the faces and chests of minor male children with desire haram?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Allaah has forbidden zina
(adultery, fornication) and homosexuality, and He has forbidden all means
that may lead to that. Allaah has enjoined the believers to lower their gaze
and refrain from looking at haraam things, and from that which it is feared
will cause one to fall into haraam. Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):

“Tell the believing men
to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their
private parts (from illegal sexual acts). That is purer for them. Verily,
Allaah is All‑Aware of what they do”

[al-Noor 24:30]

Looking at pictures of
naked children is in most cases inevitably accompanied by desire. Shaykh
al-Islam ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) narrated that the
scholars were unanimously agreed that it is haraam to look at a boy’s face
if that involves desire. He (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: A handsome,
beardless boy is like a non-mahram woman in many cases, and it is not
permissible to kiss him by way of pleasure, rather no one should kiss him
but one who is safe from that, such as a father or brother.

And it is not permissible
to look at them in this manner [i.e., with desire] according to consensus,
rather it is haraam according to the majority to look at them if there is
the fear of that.

End quote from
al-Fataawa al-Kubra (3/202)

It is not permissible to
look at pictures of naked children, and it is not permissible to look at
their chests and faces if that is accompanied by desire.